7 minute read
Welcome
Dear colleagues,
Ihope you had an enjoyable and restful summer, although now we are back into our busy period I know the summer break feels far behind us.
I would like to personally thank everyone for their support at this time. I appreciate that when there is a change in leadership this can sometimes cause uncertainty, and I hope that my recent email re-assured you that there are no other significant changes planned. Myself, Paul and Joanne appreciated the opportunity to talk with those who attended the drop-in sessions, and just to reiterate that our doors are always open. These drop-in sessions will become a regular feature during the course of this year, and we will also be launching some ‘workshop sessions’ where we can seek colleagues’ views as we look to review and update our Strategic Plan for the next few years; please look out for news on these sessions and on other ways you can contribute.
It has been a rather different start to the term, with result days being earlier this year and the impact this has had on the enrolment period. We are looking fairly good with our 16-18 numbers, but still need to enrol around 200 more students to meet our target. As always, there are some courses which are more popular than anticipated and some which have under-recruited and need further promotion. It is important that we provide advice and guidance to students to guide them onto the course which is right for them. We need to push our Higher Education provision but have a little more time as these courses start later this month, and if there is anything you can do to support awareness of our HE offer with your employer contacts that would be much appreciated. The success of our enrolment is critical, and we must ensure we all do all that we can to continue to welcome students into the College and ensure their start with us is organised, happy and successful. We have a range of events taking place in the coming weeks and months and full details will follow. Highlights include the formal opening of the Advanced Construction Skills Centre. We will also be celebrating our 25th Jubilee Birthday as City of Bristol College and will be hosting events at each centre so all staff can join in the celebrations. Finally, as colleagues will know, this is a big year for our College. We want 2021/22 to be the year when we get it right and once again become recognised, after too long a time, as the type of college that our fantastic city and our even more fantastic students deserve. I am confident that we have all the right ingredients in place to achieve this – the right facilities, the right plans and the right people – and that if we work together then we will reach our goals for the year ahead. Thank you for all of your hard-work and commitment in our shared endeavour.
It has been particularly enjoyable seeing students join and return to the College in person after having had to learn remotely for such an extended period last year. We know that young people were hugely affected by the pandemic and while we are still acutely aware of the risks around Covid-19 and continue to follow government guidance at all times, it has been great to see so many smiling faces over the past few weeks as our students return to what we hope to be a more normal year for all of us.
There has been a hive of activity at the Advanced Construction Skills Centre which is now open for our inaugural cohort of students. The Centre opened on time and on budget and looks superb; we are confident our students will have a very positive experience in the new facilities. We have secured sponsorship from a number of employers and are proud to have Vistry Partnerships as our headline sponsor for the Centre. We are working with them on a range of activities including apprenticeships and encouraging more females into construction courses. We have also started events again in the College and at the end of last term we hosted our Construction Question Time breakfast event and last week hosted our Construction Breakfast meeting, both attracting around 30 employers. It can sometimes be easy to forget to fully celebrate key achievements but I want to reflect on the wonderful staff and student awards held at the end of last year. There were so many deserving winners in our staff awards and you can read more on page 11. We also presented the annual Student Awards online again this year. Students and parents watched the event online with more than 500 viewers seeing the great achievements. Thank you to all staff who nominated students, we had a record number of nominations this year, making the process event harder to select our overall winners.
Student satisfaction is important to us and as a team we are going through the key areas where students have said we could improve. These include enrichment activities, which now such activities can return, we will be investing in across the course of this year. There are many aspects of the College that students are exceptionally happy with and you can read on this inside.
We have received great coverage on the BBC and ITV recently. Study Coach, Jane Edwards, was interviewed live on BBC Radio Bristol’s morning show and BBC News Points West’s evening show on GCSE results day. She spoke about the advice we give to students following their exam results. I featured in ITV News West Country, having been filmed in the Advanced Construction Skills Centre and specifically focussing on what the College is doing to encourage more females into construction courses. Simon Arnold and some of our apprentices from DAF and Business Administration were interviewed and also featured on ITV News West Country focussing on apprenticeship vacancies and how the sector is shaping post-pandemic. If you did not see this, you can watch here. Last week we featured on ITV for hosting pop-up vaccination centres at our College Green Centre and South Bristol Skills Academy and it was good to support other measures we are taking to keep the College community safe.
Rich Harris
Chief Executive and Acting Principal
news Got a story for us? email ellie.young@cityofbristol.ac.uk
ESOL team hope to raise hundreds for refugees
This September, a team of our ESOL teachers will be taking part in a Miles For Refugees event to raise money for the British Red Cross to support refugees in the UK.
The team of 10 teachers will be walking, cycling and running throughout September to raise money to help support the Red Cross in their work distributing food parcels and supporting refugee families to be reunited with their loved ones.
The Red Cross also helps with access to accommodation, healthcare, mobile phones and more, all in a bid to make the UK a home away from home.
You can support the teachers and see how they’re doing by visiting their page here.
To find out more about how the Red Cross can help refugees in the UK, visit: How we support refugees | British Red Cross
One of City of Bristol College’s subsidiary companies, the South West Apprenticeship Company (SWAC), has been shortlisted for the GloucestershireLive Apprenticeship Awards 2021.
SWAC is an apprenticeship training agency which supports employers in the South West region to recruit and employ apprentices, and provides specialist apprentice HR advice and support.
The company has been shortlisted for the Employer of the Year Award at this year’s ceremony, which is due to take place in October at Kingsholm Stadium. Congratulations!
Payday Parkrun
Are you a runner, and do you fancy getting out and about with like-minded colleagues? Join the Payday Parkrun team!
As Parkrun is finally restarting across the country, some of City of Bristol College’s running community have decided to regularly meet up once a month for a free 5k run at various locations across Bristol.
Lecturer Ludvig Asenius said: “Parkrun was absolutely dynamite! I’ve been telling everyone it’s a terrific way to meet your colleagues in a completely different setting and start your weekend perfectly”
If you would like to join in, the next Parkruns are: • 30 October – Pomphrey Hill Parkrun • 27 November – Ashton Court Parkrun • 25 December – Christmas Parkrun, location TBC
All runs are held on Saturdays and start at 9am. Drop Rob Stewart an email to get involved or just show up at the next Parkrun event to get involved.
